Yes, you have to plan for the energy drinks being a fairly weak concentration in races i.e. take on the bananas, and take nutrition with you, bars or gels etc.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

Road surfaces are generally good. The organiser marks all potholes and rough surfaces around the whole course with purple chalk paint so they are visible.
Yeah, the last few K's are down a rough back road with some speed bumps, but take it easy down there and it's fine.
_________________@sidmott

I read the 600-odd metres bit in a review of LD events in 220 magazine (just browsing it in Tesco). Not unusual for them to be inaccurate. I did think that figure seemed very low.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

Road surfaces are generally good. The organiser marks all potholes and rough surfaces around the whole course with purple chalk paint so they are visible.
Yeah, the last few K's are down a rough back road with some speed bumps, but take it easy down there and it's fine.

The last few k's were carnage in the wet in 2015, fortunately I was off the bike before the weather turned really nasty.

There was a cattle grid and some 90 degree turns as well as the crap surface and I counted at least 4 people crash out.

I nearly stacked it just before T2, there is a short but steep ramp down to the Transition area and a speed bump right at the bottom and then a 90 degree turn. I am still not sure how I got away without stacking it.

Traffic wise there is a longish A-road section as you go from Loop 1 onto loop 2 and quite a lot of road furniture in the middle of the road so its possible to get held up as drivers can't get past other racers in front.

Its a nice course though other than that, particularly when you consider that horrifically tedious pancake flat run course to follow. Hills may hurt to run up but at least they give you some respite on the descent.
_________________2017 Races Green Man Ultra, Conti thunder Run (solo), Dart 10k swim

Traffic wise there is a longish A-road section as you go from Loop 1 onto loop 2 and quite a lot of road furniture in the middle of the road so its possible to get held up as drivers can't get past other racers in front.

Hopefully traffic in the form of other riders will be limited if things go as planned. Not that I want the lone training ride experience I had at the 226 last year.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

The southern loop is as flat as you are likely to find in the UK but the northern loop is quite undulating.

There is only one "Hill" but lots of times the gradient is going up. No reason to get off the aero bars, the back end of the northern loop particularly is a long draggy climb.

Its nothing to worry about, but just don't expect pancake flat.

As for the road surfaces Pretty much echo above. For 99% of the course its very good. and the last few KM are SO bad you should naturally want to slow down.

Its not even all of the last few K's either just parts. I've just accepted its part of the race, take it easy. I've done 110 hard miles I can afford to relax the final bit, I've got a bit of a run coming up...

I did it in 2015 in the full horror show weather without issue, but did see some casualties.

Pancake flat is actually counterproductive, as you never get out of the saddle and use varying muscles. Gently undulating and the odd hill are fine in my book.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

Joined: 07 Sep 2008Posts: 129Location: Hundreds of miles from Fort William

Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:54 am Post subject:

I'm in after nearly 5 years of concentrating on ultras. Had entered last year, but failed to get the bike mileage in, so fell back to running races only.

Haven't done this distance since Regensburg in 2011 (pleasure of going for a training swim with Jorgan beforehand ).

Staying at the Nottingham Riverside Travelodge.

A last hurrah at the long distance, as I don't think my creaky old bones could face the training again. Maybe a last hurrah on TriTalk too! .
_________________'You gotta keep on keeping on, no matter how rough it gets' - NF Porter